Scott Adams Thread (Garfield Cartoonist)

[redpoint5]

I dislike most politicians for reasons similar to why I distrust adult men who seek 1-on-1 alone time with children.

... SA continues to exemplify the artist and not the engineer trait by not having a good grasp of science or technology. He doesn't know why planets with no magnetosphere lose gasses, and we should get excited about today's battery "breakthrough" despite his near zero understanding of chemistry.

As an aside, most people incorrectly view batteries as technology and assume it can be improved in relative proportion to how much effort is given to it. Technology can be developed, but 100% of the rules of chemistry are baked into this universe, and we can merely discover them. There's no Moore's law of battery capacity, or some such thing.

[freebeard]

I dislike most politicians for reasons similar to why I distrust...

I can picture a scenario where I might like someone I distrust, but not where I would trust someone I dislike. [My DSL modem faked it's own death for two days. I turned it of for 24, pressed reset, and those replacement costs no longer scare me]

A Nigerian leader quoted Scott's principle of talent stacking...

Nigeria [is not equal to] Africa.

... SA continues to exemplify the artist and not the engineer trait by not having a good grasp of science or technology.

First thing I did was go to Youtube and the Angry Astronaut. At this time stamp NASA and SpaceX have been quietly practicing a new way to land on Mars! has an awesome depiction of an approaching dust storm on Mars. Then some AI-imagined habitats.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I can picture a scenario where I might like someone I distrust, but not where I would trust someone I dislike. [My DSL modem faked it's own death for two days. I turned it of for 24, pressed reset, and those replacement costs no longer scare me]

Good point, I agree.

The similarity I was drawing is the over-eagerness to harm people for personal gain, even if they nominally agree to it. Anyone shooting a hand up saying "pick me" is cause for further scrutiny.

Nigeria [is not equal to] Africa.

I don't know much about the continent (or history/geography in general). You seem to imply that dysfunction in Nigeria is not broadly similar to the types of dysfunction in other African countries.

[freebeard]

Without the necessary research, my impression is that Nigeria is doing better than elsewhere, but maybe it's just a higher birth rate.

I missed Adams's podcast for two or three days. Was he on about Mars?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Without the necessary research, my impression is that Nigeria is doing better than elsewhere, but maybe it's just a higher birth rate.

I missed Adams's podcast for two or three days. Was he on about Mars?

Normally a higher birthrate is inversely correlated with "doing better".

Scott admitted shame in not having previously wondered where Mars' water went considering it used to have oceans, then asked if it evaporated away, but then walked that back saying the Earth has a closed water cycle.

[freebeard]

For me the bigger question is where did the material that filled the Valles Marineris go to. There's no downstream. It was levitated into space.

Curiously, the water reported there in 2021 is a deposit at right angles to the canyon itself.

This map shows the highest concentrations of water in blue and purple, as detected by the orbiter. I. Mitrofanov/ESA

Were I on Mars, this is where I'd want to be.

marspedia.org/Valles_Marineris#Possible_habitat_location

The floor of Valles Marineris is low enough that air pressure is significantly higher than at the rim. If a colony was built close to the north wall, the wall would provide good radiation protection from Cosmic rays since the wall blocks about half the sky. Further, the thicker air would provide protection from solar radiation.

Ground fogs have been seen at dawn at the canyon floor, so it is certain that water exists close to the ground surface.

Valles Marineris exists on the equator, so it will be one of the warmest areas on the planet. It is also one of the few equatorial sites where there is strong evidence of water, which makes it doubly attractive.

And now, according to Angry Astronaut we can fire a retrorocket at supersonic speeds. So landing is less a problem.

I have today's episode queued.